


finally got it all right

by fandomnerd



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: (not quite) angst with a happy ending, F/F, Mutual Pining, potentially the crackiest crossover ship i've ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 13:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9182893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomnerd/pseuds/fandomnerd
Summary: So, here’s the thing about Kate Bishop. She had a Type.Unfortunately, that type was pretty often aligned with Clint’s Type: beautiful, terrifying women, who could probably kill her before she could blink.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bagofgroceries](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=bagofgroceries).



> Written for the first Kate Bishop secret santa exchange, for tumblr user bagofgroceries. The prompt was "Angst with a happy ending. Weird pairings. Crossovers are a 10/10 A+"
> 
> I am Not Good at angst, and I possibly took the crossover weird pairing thing a little far, but oh well.
> 
> Also, for purposes of this fic: Kate and the other Young Avengers are in their mid-20s. Because I say so.
> 
>  
> 
> Title is from "I Choose You" by Sara Bareilles

So, here’s the thing about Kate Bishop. She had a Type.

Unfortunately, that type was pretty often aligned with Clint’s Type: beautiful, terrifying women, who could probably kill her before she could blink. Sometimes there were additional reasons she shouldn’t date them, like that time she almost dated America before remembering what a terrible idea it was to date her teammates.

This, though. This was new.

 _This_ , of course, being the newest Avenger, a woman from another universe named Laurel, also known as the Black Canary.

(Which, for the record, Kate wouldn’t be weirded out by the alternate universe thing, because again, _America_. But America didn’t bring this woman—a speedster in a red leather suit calling himself the Flash did, and the concept of a _speedster_ being capable of interdimensional travel has been haunting her dreams ever since. Because Tommy.)

Apparently, Laurel was being hunted by some asshole named Damian Dahrk on her home Earth, which, uncreative name much? Definitely points off for lack of originality. According to Laurel and her speedster friend, though, he’d nearly killed her. She’d survived, but had to fake her death and flee to another universe so that he’d stop coming after her to get to her Dad and other superhero friends. 

Kate could respect that. She could also respect the reasoning behind Laurel’s grouchiness—if Kate had had to flee to another dimension to protect her team, she would do it without pause, but she’d hate it and probably ramp up her sarcasm like 300% just to make her displeasure clear.

So really, Kate understood where Laurel was coming from, with the grouchy temper and the frustration-fueled workouts and the sexy death glares.

This did not, however, prevent any of those things from turning Kate’s brain to mush.

(To be fair, Kate was pretty sure they were _all_ still recovering from that time Laurel convinced Tony to install a salmon ladder in the Tower. Like, Laurel was objectively gorgeous. Those weren't just Kate’s hormones speaking.)

So yeah, okay, maybe Kate had been….pining. And maybe every member of her team, as well as Clint and Nat and Bobbi, had tried talking to her about this (either out of concern or encouragement—Kate’s like. 90% sure there’s a betting pool going on somewhere). But pining was better than the alternative. Namely: telling Laurel that Kate thought she was smoking hot and wanted to get to know her better, resulting in Kate either getting shot down, or potentially even worse, entering into a relationship that was doomed to fail. Because she’s a Hawkeye, and relationships with teammates never end well. And also Laurel was from another universe, and would probably have to go back there at some point.

So instead she kind of avoided Laurel. 

How was she supposed to know Laurel would notice?

\---

Laurel was used to being an outsider. Mostly because of Oliver, but really her previous team as a whole had taken an upsettingly long time to accept her. Well, except for Thea. God, Laurel missed that kid.

But thinking about her previous teammates (and oh, god, Felicity would be _crushed_ ) just led back to hating herself for doing this to them, which was unproductive. She was doing this to _help_ them—she was putting them all in danger as long as Dahrk thought he could use her to get to them.

They’d _probably_ forgive her. Eventually. She was banking on them being so relieved that she wasn’t dead that they forgot to be angry about her faking her death in the first place. 

But, in the meantime, she was stuck here. “Earth 616,” Barry had called it. Laurel was a little uncomfortable with the thought that there were that many Earths out there, but the last time she had expressed this to him, he’d just laughed and told her there were _infinite_ Earths, and wasn’t that so cool?

No. No it was not.

Still, Laurel had to concede that not _everything_ about this universe sucked. They had burgers and fries and milkshakes, and her fries still tasted just as good dipped in said milkshakes as they did back on her own Earth.

This Earth _also_ had Kate Bishop, best markswoman on the planet, and the woman who Laurel had had a very inconvenient crush on for nearly the entire time she’d been here. 

The same woman who happened to have just walked into the diner Laurel was enjoying her burger at. _Of all the burger joints…_ Laurel thought ruefully, just as Kate looked up and made eye-contact. The archer’s face flushed, and her eyes went wide, before she seemed to deliberately even out her expression and look away, deliberately avoiding her and seating herself on the opposite side of the diner.

Which, Laurel hadn’t _not_ noticed that Kate had been cold around her lately. She mostly assumed that it had to do with Laurel’s own avoidance of Kate—she’d probably offended the other woman with her own lack of friendliness. Which made her feel worse than it should have, considering her reasons for avoiding Kate were _totally_ valid.

Still, the blatant brush-off hurt. They’d been professional, and even friendly at times when they’d teamed up these past few months. This? This felt too much like her early days of knowing Ollie’s secret—getting ignored and shut out by the people she cared about the most. (Even if it _was_ her own stupid fault this time.)

Suddenly, her reasons for avoiding Kate didn’t seem as convincing as they had before. She picked up her plate and milkshake, and walked straight towards Kate’s table, meeting Kate’s gaze when she looked up at the noise and maintaining eye-contact the whole time.

“Funny meeting you here.”

Kate half-smiled and cocked an eyebrow. “This _is_ conclusively the best diner on Earth-616. My team and I are quite the connoisseurs of diner food.” There was a definite note of pride in her tone, which Laurel should maybe not have found as cute as she did, but oh well.

“Well, _I’m_ just glad that your Earth does fries and milkshakes as well as mine does.”

She dipped a fry into her milkshake and took a bite, moaning just a little bit for effect. Kate’s eyes went wide.

“I….did not expect you to be the type to enjoy that combo, to be perfectly honest.”

Laurel laughed shortly. “That would assume you knew me well enough to judge my habits like that, wouldn’t it?” 

Laurel didn’t know what had made her say that, considering she’d been the one avoiding Kate. She opened her mouth to apologize, but Kate beat her to the punch.

“Okay, yeah, that’s fair. Sorry.” Kate’s eyebrows drew down in a determined stare that Laurel recognized from the fair amount of team-ups they’d done. Almost too fast for Laurel to see, Kate’s hand shot out to grab a fry. She dunked it into the milkshake as well, and shoved it in her mouth before Laurel could say anything.

Kate chewed and swallowed quickly, her mouth splitting into a beaming grin. Laurel gasped in exaggerated betrayal. “Excuse you, these are _my_ fries. Get your own if you want them so badly.”

“ _You’re_ the one who brought them over in the first place!” Kate hesitated, tapping her fingers absently on the table. “Why….why _did_ you come over here, anyway?”

Laurel exhaled deeply and bit the corner of her lip. “Because I wanted to talk to you, and apologize for avoiding you? It’s ridiculous, I know, but I just—I didn’t want to form connections while I was here, you know? But I’ve been really rude, and I’d like to be your friend.” _I’d like to be_ more _than that, actually, but I’ll take what I can get._

Kate was staring at her, wide-eyed. “ _You_ were avoiding _me_? But _I_ was avoiding _you_.”

Laurel’s brow furrowed. “You were?”

Kate’s jaw dropped indignantly. “You mean you didn’t notice? I thought that was what you were coming over here to confront me about, actually.”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know; it just seemed like the most reasonable explanation for you coming over here!”

An awkward silence settled over them for a few moments, neither seeming to know what to say.

Finally, Kate broke the silence. “We can be friends, if you want. I’d like that.”

A smile slowly stretched across Laurel’s face. “I’d like that too.”

“Just. One thing.”

Laurel raised an eyebrow curiously, but before she could react Kate had darted around the table and kissed her. It was barely a peck, lasting _maybe_ half a second, but Laurel was frozen still.

Kate pulled back. “Sorry. I just, I had to know what that felt like. But it’s out of my system now, so we can have a normal friendly platonic rela—“ she was interrupted by Laurel leaning in for a kiss this time—one much slower, and less chaste.

She pulled back, and assumed that her own face matched the goofy, dazed look on Kate’s.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So….more than friends?” 

“I’m so glad we’re on the same page.”

 ---

From the table across the room, where Billy and Teddy had been sitting deliberately inconspicuously the entire time, Billy grumbled and handed a smug Teddy a ten-dollar bill.


End file.
